Alan Rickhall

Name: Alan Rickhall

Gender: Male

Age: 17

Grade: 12

School: Bayview Secondary School

Hobbies and Interests: Drama, Philosophy

Appearance: Alan is slightly taller then average and rather thin, weighing 157lb and measuring at 5 foot and 11 inches in height. He has a regular Caucasian skin tone and light blue eyes. His face is rather round and average looking. His fingers are slightly longer then average and his body is also very thin and boney. His ears also stick out slightly and his forehead is also slightly larger then average, but he often covers them with his hair so that people don't notice.

His hair is brown and shaggy, it's often a bit messy from not washing or drying it properly. It also often gets in his eyes, but he refuses to have it cut any shorter then it needs to be, saying that it simply doesn't suit him. He is often seen wearing polo neck shirts of many different designs with all the buttons done up and a variety of differently coloured tracksuit bottoms. When needed, he also wears what seems to be the same black and beige cotton jumper. (Mostly black with beige strips down the sleeves and collar.)

On the day of the kidnapping, Alan was wearing a turquoise blue and white striped polo-neck shirt, with all the buttons done up, a black and beige cotton jumper, (The same as described) a pair of brown tracksuit bottom trousers and a pair of slightly worn, black trainers. He also has a small photograph of himself and Zoey Desantra, a girl who he once loved but now can't work out if he still loves or not in his right trouser pocket.

Biography: Alan's parents were both born in London, England; however they didn't meet until they had both coincidentally moved to St. Paul in Minnesota. They both moved for different reasons; Alan's mother moved because although she loved England she wanted a change of scenery and always wanted to live in America, she eventually decided on St. Paul. Alan's father however, moved because the DIY company that he worked for in England decided to branch out and he was to become manager of a branch being set up in St. Paul. Alan's parents were rather strict when it came to teaching Alan proper manners (Something that Alan learnt and began using very quickly) and have always made sure that Alan always respected his British heritage, through constant visits to various parts of England so that he could learn his native culture from the very young age of 7. Because of this, he has developed a mild British accent and a very well-spoken and considerably posh tone of voice.

As a baby, Alan's upbringing was fairly average with no problems. When he started school, although he was shy and scared at first, he got on rather well with almost everyone he met, making a few good friends and always trying hard to work to the best of his abilities. (Which in many subjects was fairly above average)

During his childhood, his mother was always trying to find hobbies for Alan to take up and keep him amused. He turned down just about every sport that he trialled, saying that they were boring and tiring. He especially hated Soccer, a subject that quite a few people in his class had started picking up. His lack of knowledge on the subject (Plus the fact that he called it Football) cost him quite a few of his less important friends, who turned against him and started to make fun of him. Alan would always take these insults to heart and would often end up crying about them. His confidence was shattered as a result of this and he began to keep to himself and a few close friends. It wasn't until his mother suggested that he tried out the local youth dramatics society that he began to build his confidence back. He took to acting right away and loved every minute of it. Even though he was still young and was normally a background character on stage, he truly felt something whenever he was acting, although at the time he didn't know what that something was.

At about the age of 11, Alan started to develop feelings for a particular girl named Zoey Desantra, who joined his class that year. He didn't quite understand these feelings but he had saw bits of romantic movies that his parents watched so he immediately jumped to the conclusion that the feelings he felt for Zoey were 'true love' and that he would have to ask her out. Unfortunately, she did not quite have the same feelings for Alan as Alan did for her and she almost harshly rejected him without a second thought. Alan's confidence plummeted back into the ground and she slipped out of his life. Unfortunately it was around that time that the town's local drama society went bankrupt. Alan was too scared to join one of the other drama societies in the town and simply stopped.

As he grew older, his parents started planning more and more holidays to England and as a result, his British accent started to develop and began to use it more and more in regular conversation. He also stopped playing around and messing about with friends, finding more amusement in reading or just talking to people. Over the next couple of years, many people who he talked to began to find his calm and polite attitude slightly weird and registered him as different and unapproachable simply for this fact. Alan was confused by this. His parents had always taught him that being polite and nice was right and that people will like you for it, but people weren't liking him, he couldn't understand why people didn't like him for just being a nice person, so he tried acting like everyone else. Unfortunately, after a couple of weeks, many people twigged on to his drastic change in personality and began to make fun of him for it. His confidence now 6 feet under, Alan went back to his old personality and vowed never to stray from it. As a result, he began to hate change of almost all kinds. Strangely, he would often get over large change, but it was the little changes that really got to him, things like a change in his daily schedule or moving the furniture in his room drove him round the bend. However he didn't want to break his quiet polite attitude, so he pushed all his anger down, along with any other anger he occasionally experienced from being made fun of by some insensitive acquaintance.

This hatred of change had quite a big effect on him over the next few years. He witnessed the people he had known for years change in several ways. Obviously some changed more then others, but Alan couldn't stand it. He couldn't understand why people would want to take up smoking, he couldn't believe it when he saw people who he had known for over 10 years, in the back of police cars for robbing convenience stores. He began to ponder why people would want to change. He began to spend more and more of his time alone, he wasn't able to restore his confidence so he could not summon the courage to talk to people although he often desperately wanted to. He began to take an interest in many philosophical theories like the 'Cogito ergo sum' (I think therefore I am) theory. Things like this made him slightly paranoid, when he told his parents about these thoughts, they simply dismissed them and told him to stop thinking them. But he couldn't help it. It was as if he was in a mental battle with himself for sanity. And all this time he managed to maintain his polite, British exterior.

By the time he was 15, his parents decided that it was time for him to find something to do to keep his mind off the thoughts he was having and signed him up for an amateur dramatics society. There he made quite a few friends and began to build some confidence back. He realised that the reason he loved drama and acting so much, it was because he had always wondered what it would be like to be someone else; what it would feel like, what would he do, he would think of the people he knew and think to himself what it would be like to live in someone else's body, to think in someone else's brain, the live in someone else's heart. He also realised that Zoey; the girl he fell in love with all those years ago helped out at the drama society as a stage-hand. Alan was unsure if this was fate or not. Even so he keeps a small, printed photograph of Zoey and him that was taken at one of the studio's wrap parties. But he decided not to dwell on it too much. He had no idea if he still liked her and he had no idea if she liked him, but they became great friends with each other all the same, the incident all those years ago was never mentioned between them, but there was always a slight awkward and embarrassing feeling in the air whenever the past was mentioned. Life was beginning to balance for Alan.

As he grew to his senior year of high school, he slowly made a few friends at his school and always managed to maintain a good standard of work. His accent, along with some vocal skills he picked up in his drama group, came of use to him as many people saw him as a voice of reason, even though he didn't talk much, when he did, most semi-educated people listened and sometimes even followed him. He did sometimes get depressed that at 17 years old he still hadn't successfully had a girlfriend, but it was just a passing feeling, that he very rarely got upset about. He still spent most of his spare time thinking, contemplating life, looking mindlessly at the night sky, just trying to work out why life is the way it is. He also developed a hatred for people who smoked, probably because he linked it to change and would avoid people who smoked whenever he could, but on the surface he just said it was because they were unhealthy. He also eventually let out all his bottled-up anger healthily through his drama classes. He does have trouble releasing anger at the time when someone makes him angry, but he just releases it through acting. (It seems to be the only way he can release it) He would never swear, he would never talk back and although he would try to talk his way through things, (This did sometimes work) but if that didn't work, on the inside, all his feelings started filling up his heart. (Until he burns it off through acting)

Advantages: Alan's philosophical mind helps him to think any situation or puzzle through. His calm and sensible attitude are to some extent respected by others and people generally listen to his input when he builds up the courage to speak.

Disadvantages: Although the anger that he had built up for ten years has gone and wasted, he still has a lot of trouble releasing any new anger that is introduced to his brain; the only way he can release it is through acting. He's also very shy when around people he doesn't know well, through fear of them disliking and/or insulting him.

Designated Number: Male student no. 024

---

Designated Weapon: A Rusty Spoon

Conclusion: Well, it might work for prisoners, but somehow I don't think B024 will be able to dig his way off the island. No, he's doomed, barring some sort of serious luck.

'The above biography is written by Limisios. No edits or alterations to the author's original work have been made.'

Evaluations
Handled by: Limisios

Kills: None

Killed By: Joe Rios

Collected Weapons: Rusty Spoon (assigned weapon), Naginata (From Jimmy Robertson)

Allies: Jimmy Robertson, Brock Mason (briefly), Alexander Campbell

Enemies: Reiko Ishida

Mid-game Evaluation: Awakening at the bottom of a bunker on the island's greens, Alan expended no small effort in climbing his way out, quickly encountered his friend Jimmy Robertson, who had heard his cries for help. Samantha Ridley, a girl that had arrived not long before, wound up leaving soon thereafter, worried about the noise the boys were making. Discovering Alan's weapon was only a rusty spoon, the pair agreed that it would be a good idea to find others who had a better chance of protecting them.

Moving to the felled forest, the duo encountered Claire Lambert, Julian Avery, Alice Boucher and David Meramac, who themselves had only just run across one another. Attempting to be non-threatening, Jimmy took the lead and approached them, though the reaction was lukewarm at best. The group dissolved quickly, with most of those there going their separate ways, before the first announcement resulted in Alan losing his nerve and almost freaking out. Fortunately Jimmy was on hand to calm Alan down, averting crisis.

Jimmy and Alan made their way to the island's swamp, where they stumbled upon Luke Templeton and Jimmy's teammate Brock Mason. Although trying to keep hidden, Brock more or less walked straight over Jimmy and Alan's surreptitious conversation, resulting in a panicked outburst from Alan, though this was quickly calmed. However, Brock was definitely non-violent, and the mood was raised by the arrival of Deidre Paul, a friend of Brock's. As Alan offered an idea - to band together all those refusing to play, Brock made the decision to head off, announcing that they should do their best to get out of the swamp before talking. However, Brock forging ahead left Jimmy and Alan scrambling to keep up, resulting in the two of them falling behind. By the time they caught up with him, at the mine, Brock had already fallen victim to Sarah Atwell, leaving Jimmy and Alan no option but to look on in horror. Managing to stay hidden from the killer and sidekick Alice Boucher, the pair of them slipped off, knowing there was nothing they could do. This was when Alan first began referring to players as 'The Turned', saying that no human could treat another human being in the ways that these people had, so logically, they could no longer truly be human. Whether this demonisation was just a coping mechanism was unclear, but Alan made it clear that he wanted to start a 'movement' against the terrorists.

Winding up back in the felled forest, Jimmy and Alan found Violet Druce, Mike Moretti and Jessie Anderson in conversation, their morale taking a further hit as the third announcement proclaimed both Deidre and Brock dead (though of course the latter was already known to them). Taking the lead, Jimmy greeted the others, but before any integration could happen, there was an impromptu announcement, Mr. Kwong speaking for Danya to inform the students that Liz Polanski had attempted to destroy her collar, and as a result, collars would be detonated. Jessie immediately took off, Jimmy figuring out that if they were threatening Liz in this way, she had to have succeeded in her attempts. Noting that Violet and Mike were determined to find Liz, Jimmy and Alan separated from them, striking their own path yet again.

Their next destination was the north beach, where they ran into the situation of Reiko Ishida holding Courtney Bradley (who had been at the forest too) at gunpoint. However, too distant to realise that this was what was happening, Jimmy and Alan approached anyway, resulting in Reiko's gun being trained on them instead. An attempt to calm the situation went south in a hurry, and before Jimmy could react, Reiko shot him in the stomach. Telling Alan to keep fighting and to stay strong, Jimmy bled to death from the gunshot, leaving Alan alone for the first time since he woke up. Completely unable to hold it together, Alan broke down in tears, in spite of the fact that Reiko and Courtney were still right in front of him, and to make matters worse, Courtney had her own gun now too. Luckily, a timely distraction by Jacqueline Myrie drew attention away from Alan long enough for him to escape the beach.

Alan made his way to the residential district, mourning Jimmy. However he was snapped out of his reverie when he heard a pained moaning sound from a nearby house, bursting inside to find an injured Örn Ayers - better known as Dutchy attended by Roland Hayes and Joe Rios. Mistaking Roland and Joe for attackers, Alan launched into a threat... only to realise his mistake and break down again as he apologised. Roland though, was less than sympathetic, and yelled at both Joe and Alan to get out. Shaken, Alan complied, leaving immediately.

Walking through the night, Alan was awake to hear the announcement declaring the death of Jimmy. Ranting at Danya, Alan attracting the attention of the nearby Alexander Campbell and Jasper-Declan MacDermott, the former of which was excited to see somebody might share his outlook on the game. Jasper stayed quiet as Alexander offered a team-up, an opportunity to put together a group determined to escape, with Alan and Jasper both declaring themselves 'in'. The trio set off together, but disaster was on the horizon as Alex, suffering from the after effects of field-amputating his arm and a complete lack of rest afterwards, collapsed. Feverish, Alex could not keep going, and in front of the others, finally succumbed to his injury. Stunned, Jasper fled, and once again, Alan was left by himself.

Despondent, Alan walked until he stumbled upon the hall of mirrors, which he decided was as good a place as any to rest. However, he got little time to himself as Joe Rios charged through the front doors, calling out a threat that was half serious and half bluff, hoping to provoke Alan into attacking him. With nothing left to live for, a nihilistic Alan proposed 'a game' - whoever attacked first would 'lose', whoever didn't won, and got what they wanted - death. Staring one another down for several minutes, it was Joe that eventually cracked, attacking Alan with his scythe. The blade piercing his ribs, Alan collapsed and, tearing his beloved photo in half, died.

Post-Game Evaluation: Waah. Waah. Waah. Has anyone EVER cried as much as this sap? Jeez, if this is the best the 'movement' against us can muster, I think I'm safe. A kitten has more chance of hurting me.

Memorable Quotes:

"Jimmy? And what? Jimmy no, please don't go yet, I can't survive without you, please. Wake up, please... You must wake up... Why won't you wake..." - Alan reacts to Jimmy's death at the hands of Reiko Ishida

"I don't know. I don't know what I believe any more. All I know is that my best friend has been killed and all that bloody Danya does is sit and laugh. But he doesn't care, you can kill every kid on this island and it probably won't amount to shit. Danya doesn't feel, or care, or anything. He may as well be programmed." - '''To Alexander Campbell. Is there a way out of the game?'''

"That's it? You're just going to die. You can't leave me already. I don't... I don't even know your name." - Alan's alliance with Alexander Campbell comes to an abrupt end.

"It's been a pleasure playing with you... I hope... I hope that you find a way to put yourself at peace." - Dying, Alan addresses his killer, Joe Rios

Other/Trivia

 * The photograph of Alan and Zoey Desantra mentioned in Alan's biography was on Alan's person when he was abducted by SOTF and he often stares at it when scared or stressed to try and help calm him down and think of Zoey.
 * The name Alan Rickhall was chosen by Limisios through an old piece of writing advice he had been given. "If you can't think of a name for a character, go to your favourite movie and look at the actor's names for inspiration." So Limisios went straight to the IMDB page for The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy movie. Limisios based the name after the voice actor of Marvin because he thought that no-one would have heard of the actor and would not work out the similarities in names. However, as he had always hated Harry Potter and never watched any of the films, he had no idea that the voice of Marvin, Alan Rickman, was a bit more famous then he suspected.
 * There are no similarities in character between Alan Rickman and Alan Rickhall, the only comparble feature is the similar name.
 * Alan's death post (To Die Hating Them, That Was Freedom.) recieved a positive recommendation from SOTF admin KillerVole, calling it "one of the oddest kills/deaths in V4, in a very good way."

Threads
Below is a list of threads that contain Alan, in chronological order.

V4:
 * The Cult of ...
 * Bump in the Night
 * Dirty
 * Heartbeat Symphony
 * Cool Ranch
 * Darken Your Clothes and Strike a Violent Pose
 * The Long Road Home
 * Our Last Days As Children
 * Inevitability
 * To Die Hating Them, That Was Freedom

Your Thoughts
''Whether you were a fellow handler in SOTF or just an avid reader of the site, we'd like to know what you thought about Alan Rickhall. What did you like, or dislike, about the character? Let us know here!''


 * If I could quote Danya's conclusion for Alan: "he's doomed, barring some sort of serious luck." Personally, I think the fact that he wandered through the island for quite a while without so much as a scratch on him. And to almost make it into the final 100, I would say is pretty lucky. Alan was my favourite character so it's hard to see him go, but equally, I thought that there wasn't much left in store for him, so I'm really happy he died the way he did, and whether Zoey noticed that he was gone or not, (I've always been unsure as to that myself.) I've loved writing Alan's story. However, if I could change one thing... I would have made Zoey a character or an NPC, it seems such a shame to leave her as just a face on a photograph. Limisios 17:29, May 1, 2011 (UTC)


 * What an awful lot of tears! Alan was a good read precisely because he was so emotionally fragile. I mean, it only makes sense in that kind of situation, right? It occasionally got a little bit too much, as he started crying at the drop of a hat, but overall he felt pretty realistic, and read very much like a guy denying the inevitabilities of the game and being to quite a big extent in denial about how everything worked. Really nice to see somebody just genuinely lose hope and wait for the end, too. -- Namira
 * It's not at all a secret I've got a soft spot for Alan, especially his death scene. Alan was a weirdo, coming up with all sorts of odd justifications for what was happening to him. He had good relationships (I enjoyed his friendship with Jimmy Robertson quite a lot), and overall is another V4 character who's not remembered quite as much as he should be. What I really want to talk about with Alan, though, is the staring contest of death. In a game where just about everything has been done, it was really interesting and refreshing to see two characters who'd pretty much given up and lost hope facing down, with the understanding that the loser would keep living. It's a great little scene, a concept that is surprisingly moving, and it's still one of the deaths I remember most from V4. So, yeah, worth a look for sure. - MurderWeasel